one day, he and his associates would help run the bush administration. >> the conservatives on the harvard law school campus at that time were severely outnumbered. >> narrator: inside the toxic environment of the law review, obama's affinity for the politically conservative students surprised his black associates. >> i don't know why at the time he was able to communicate so well with them, even spend social time with them, which was not something i would ever have done. >> narrator: no african-american had ever been president of the law review. in his second year, obama won the job. >> although i'm honored and i think people can say that my election symbolizes some progress, at least within the small confines of the legal community, i think it's real important to keep the focus on the broader world out there and see that for a lot of kids, the doors that have been opened to me aren't open to them. >> narrator: the african-american editors were ecstatic. >> i think a lot of the minority editors on the review expected him to use his discretion to the maximum extent possible to empower them